Black White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self

by Rebecca Walker

Overview

The Civil Rights movement brought author Alice Walker and lawyer Mel Leventhal together, and in 1969 their daughter, Rebecca, was born. Some saw this unusual copper-colored girl as an outrage or an oddity; others viewed her as a symbol of harmony, a triumph of love over hate. But after her parents divorced, leaving her a lonely only child ferrying between two worlds that only seemed to grow further apart, Rebecca was no longer sure what she represented. In this book, Rebecca Leventhal Walker attempts to define herself as a soul instead of a symbol—and offers a new look at the challenge of personal identity, in a story at once strikingly unique and truly universal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781573229074
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/08/2002
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	428,262
Product dimensions:	5.15(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.83(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Rebecca Walker has received numerous awards and accolades for her writing and activism. Her work has appeared in many anthologies and publications; in addition to the international bestseller Black, White, and Jewish, her books include Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood After a Lifetime of Ambivalence, and the anthologies To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism, which has become a standard text in gender studies courses around the world, and What Makes a Man: 22 Writers Imagine the Future. A popular speaker at universities and in business settings, Walker teaches the art of memoir at workshops and writing conferences internationally. She lives in Hawaii.

Read an Excerpt

BLACK, WHITE AND JEWISH
by Rebecca Walker

 

INTRODUCTION

Black, White, and Jewish is the story of a child's unique struggle for identity and home when nothing in her world told her who she was or where she belonged. Poetic reflections on memory, time, and identity punctuate this gritty exploration of race and sexuality. Rebecca Walker has taken up the lineage of her mother, Alice, whose last name she chose to carry, and has written a lucid and inventive memoir that marks the launch of a major new literary talent.

 

ABOUT REBECCA WALKER

Rebecca Walker has written for or been featured in stories in The New York Times, The Chicago Times, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Esquire, and U.S. News & World Report, and has appeared on CNN, MTV, and Charlie Rose. She is the founder of Third Wave Direct Action Foundation, a national nonprofit organization devoted to cultivating young women's leadership and activism.

Praise

"The daughter of famed African American writer Alice Walker and liberal Jewish lawyer Mel Leventhal brings a frank, spare style and detail-rich memories to this compelling contribution to the growing subgenre of memoirs by biracial authors about life in a race-obsessed society. Her artfulness in baring her psyche will, spirit and sexuality will attract a wealth of deserved praise."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. While most teenagers struggle to move away from their parents, Rebecca Walker searches for closeness with her immediate and extended families. Why is it so difficult for her to enjoy the independence she is given?
    
2. Rebecca recalls how a drunk student walks into her dorm room at Yale and asks if she is "really black and Jewish." After he leaves, Rebecca sits in the dark wondering whether she is "possible." Self-doubt appears to be a recurring theme in her life. How do her self-perceptions change as she moves between her parents' houses, from Brooklyn to Atlanta to Washington DC to San Francisco to Bronx to Larchmont and back to San Francisco? Discuss her experiences in different neighborhoods and how her self-acceptance is shaped by social acceptance.
    
3. Rebecca becomes sexually active earlier than an average teenager. What is the meaning of sex in her life? How has it changed since her early experiences? Does she manage to find her true identity through her lovers? Discuss her experience with Michael and with Andrew. How does the color of their skin (Michael is black, Andrew is white) affect their relationships with Rebecca?
    
4. What was your reaction to Rebecca having an abortion at the age of 14? Can you explain why she didn't grieve for her unborn child?
    
5. Rebecca is candid about her experimentation with drugs. Do you think she really had a choice not to take them? Discuss how our peers can sometimes make decisions for us and why we accept their decisions.
    
6. What does it mean to Rebecca to be a "movement child"? How -- if at all -- does the meaning change from the beginning of the book, when she sees her parents happily married, to the end, when she struggles with their uneasiness during her graduation party?
    
7. Throughout her childhood and adolescence and after her parents divorced, Rebecca must make choices between her mother's African American heritage and her father's Jewish heritage. Has she found peace with herself being biracial and thus "the translator, the one in between, the one serving as the walkway between two worlds"? Or, has she chosen one over the other? Why does she feel more of an affinity towards her black ancestors?
    
8. The book begins and ends with a discussion of memory. What is the meaning of memory in Rebecca's life? Does she refer to her brain's ability to retain information or to some deeper innate knowledge? What knowledge is it? What is "genetic memory"? What role does it play in our lives? How does the discussion on memory at the beginning differ from the one at the end?
    
9. What is significance of the subtitle? Why does Rebecca refer to her self as "a shifting self"? Has she found a place where she is no longer "shifting"?

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Compelling."—The Washington Post

"Stunningly honest."—San Francisco Chronicle

"A complex, all-American story."—USA Today

"Walker masterfully illuminates differences between black and white America...A heartbreaking tale of self-creation."—People

"[Walker] offers painful childhood memories of straddling two vastly different cultures—black bohemia and Jewish suburbia—to fashion a cautionary tale about the power of race in shaping identity...[a] highly readable debut."—Entertainment Weekly

"Walker [writes with] elegant, discreet candor...will attract a wealth of well-deserved praise."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A beautifully written meditation on the creation of a woman’s sense of self."—Jane Lazarre, author of Beyond the Whiteness of Whiteness

"Powerful...deeply affecting."—Danzy Senna, author of Caucasia

Reading Group Guide

INTRODUCTION
Black, White, and Jewish is the story of a child's unique struggle for identity and home when nothing in her world told her who she was or where she belonged. Poetic reflections on memory, time, and identity punctuate this gritty exploration of race and sexuality. Rebecca Walker has taken up the lineage of her mother, Alice, whose last name she chose to carry, and has written a lucid and inventive memoir that marks the launch of a major new literary talent.

 

ABOUT REBECCA WALKER

Rebecca Walker has written for or been featured in stories in The New York Times, The Chicago Times,Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Esquire, and U.S. News & World Report, and has appeared on CNN, MTV, and Charlie Rose. She is the founder of Third Wave Direct Action Foundation, a national nonprofit organization devoted to cultivating young women's leadership and activism.

Praise

"The daughter of famed African American writer Alice Walker and liberal Jewish lawyer Mel Leventhal brings a frank, spare style and detail-rich memories to this compelling contribution to the growing subgenre of memoirs by biracial authors about life in a race-obsessed society. Her artfulness in baring her psyche will, spirit and sexuality will attract a wealth of deserved praise."

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

While most teenagers struggle to move away from their parents, Rebecca Walker searches for closeness with her immediate and extended families. Why is it so difficult for her to enjoy the independence she is given?
 

Rebecca recalls how a drunk student walks into her dorm room at Yale and asks if she is "really black and Jewish." After he leaves, Rebecca sits in the dark wondering whether she is "possible." Self-doubt appears to be a recurring theme in her life. How do her self-perceptions change as she moves between her parents' houses, from Brooklyn to Atlanta to Washington DC to San Francisco to Bronx to Larchmont and back to San Francisco? Discuss her experiences in different neighborhoods and how her self-acceptance is shaped by social acceptance.
 

Rebecca becomes sexually active earlier than an average teenager. What is the meaning of sex in her life? How has it changed since her early experiences? Does she manage to find her true identity through her lovers? Discuss her experience with Michael and with Andrew. How does the color of their skin (Michael is black, Andrew is white) affect their relationships with Rebecca?
 

What was your reaction to Rebecca having an abortion at the age of 14? Can you explain why she didn't grieve for her unborn child?
 

Rebecca is candid about her experimentation with drugs. Do you think she really had a choice not to take them? Discuss how our peers can sometimes make decisions for us and why we accept their decisions.
 

What does it mean to Rebecca to be a "movement child"? How — if at all — does the meaning change from the beginning of the book, when she sees her parents happily married, to the end, when she struggles with their uneasiness during her graduation party?
 

Throughout her childhood and adolescence and after her parents divorced, Rebecca must make choices between her mother's African American heritage and her father's Jewish heritage. Has she found peace with herself being biracial and thus "the translator, the one in between, the one serving as the walkway between two worlds"? Or, has she chosen one over the other? Why does she feel more of an affinity towards her black ancestors?
 

The book begins and ends with a discussion of memory. What is the meaning of memory in Rebecca's life? Does she refer to her brain's ability to retain information or to some deeper innate knowledge? What knowledge is it? What is "genetic memory"? What role does it play in our lives? How does the discussion on memory at the beginning differ from the one at the end?
 

What is significance of the subtitle? Why does Rebecca refer to her self as "a shifting self"? Has she found a place where she is no longer "shifting"?

Editorial Reviews

"Compelling."—The Washington Post

"Stunningly honest."—San Francisco Chronicle

"A complex, all-American story."—USA Today

"Walker masterfully illuminates differences between black and white America...A heartbreaking tale of self-creation."—People

"[Walker] offers painful childhood memories of straddling two vastly different cultures—black bohemia and Jewish suburbia—to fashion a cautionary tale about the power of race in shaping identity...[a] highly readable debut."—Entertainment Weekly

"Walker [writes with] elegant, discreet candor...will attract a wealth of well-deserved praise."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A beautifully written meditation on the creation of a woman’s sense of self."—Jane Lazarre, author of Beyond the Whiteness of Whiteness

"Powerful...deeply affecting."—Danzy Senna, author of Caucasia

From the Publisher

Rebecca Walker's mother is celebrated author Alice Walker, and her father is prominent lawyer Mel Leventhal, but this candid autobiography doesn't rely on its celebrity connections. Black, White, and Jewish is, as Jane Lazarre has noted, a "beautifully written meditation on the creation of a woman's' sense of self."

bn.com

I have to admit that when I first eyed the title of Walker's memoir a measurable amount of suspicion lurked in my heart. I worried that upon reading it, I would find myself entangled in a wishy-washy, whiny diatribe that avoided a meaningful political or social center. So many books, films and other forms of media that purport to add something urgent to the discussion on race in America, woefully fall short or just plain fail. This book is not one of them.

Walker has written, in blunt, stunning and intelligent language, a vital story about what it meant to come of age in two worlds that existed, largely, in diametric opposition. Here, she makes it clear that she is an author with her own necessary and brilliant voice. Early on she writes, "I am not a bastard, the product of rape, the child of some white devil. I am a Movement Child. My parents tell me I can do anything I put my mind to, that I can be anything I want…I am not tragic."

Throughout the book, the honesty with which Walker confronts her confusion, her loves, her desires, her sexuality and her anger, makes the reader want to turn away, lest she be accused of spying, or worse, uncover pieces of her own self. That's what happened to me. Reading this book, I was forced to recall my own childhood in which a white world was imposed on me vis-à-vis private schools, summer camps and dance classes.

Black, White & Jewish is a virtual road map-a guide through the complexities of race and childhood. This is a book ready-made for the great canon of women's literature that rejects silence and surface analyses and tells the truth, whether or not we want to hear it.
— Black Issues Book Review

Asha Bandele

...what a complex, all-American story....

USA Today

Walker is a fine writer, with a finely tuned sense of the intricacies of the American race labyrinth.

San Francisco Chronicle

Making her U.S. debut with this dramatic, fast-paced tale of adventure, survival, romance and enduring parental love (human and ursine), British writer McGregor should reach a broad audience here. Acerbic young London journalist Jo Harper has an assignment to interview the wife of Doug Marshall, a British archeologist gone missing in the Arctic while pursuing the mystery of the Franklin Expedition, which vanished in 1845. While Jo has no interest in the story at first, it isn't long before she is fascinated by man and quest alike. When Marshall is rescued, she begins an affair with him and has a child, though her happiness is not fated to last. Three other narratives revolve around Jo's story: Doug's 19-year-old son John's painful attempts to capture "his father's true attention"; the deadly, icebound struggle of the Franklin Expedition, told from the point of view of a 12-year-old ship hand; and a polar bear's dedication to her cub. The protagonist of each segment fears being frozen out, both literally and emotionally, and struggles to survive very private trials. The book shifts its focus without losing steam when a tragic death and another disappearance occur, and a terrible discovery shifts the balance between the searchers and the sought-after. McGregor introduces perhaps one dramatic twist too many, but her novel otherwise artfully mixes historical background, up-to-date medical information about a rare disease, a bit of pop psychologizing and some upbeat lessons about the survival of the human spirit. Major ad/promo; rights sold in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the U.K. . (May 7) Forecast: Bearing the hallmarks of a great summer read, this novel hits all the bases. If McGregor comes here to do talk shows, she could attract Oprah's audience with her tale of selling the book just after her 20-year marriage ended. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Black Hawk Down is more than a well-crafted action thriller. Ninety-nine elite fighting men, trapped in a hostile city, are running out of ammunition and medical supplies as night falls. A rescue helicopter crashes, and an armored column loses its way. But this is not fiction; the people are real, and Bowden takes pains to show how a peaceful food-for-starving-Africans mission led to U.S. involvement in the battle of Mogadishu and how it extricated itself. This original work is virtually the sole source on the battle; it has won awards and was made into a movie. One caveat: this accurate portrayal of war contains a lot of gore. Narrator Alan Sklar's dramatization of this gripping tale is compelling. Recommended for all collections.DJames L. Dudley, Westhampton, NY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

English author McGregor makes her US debut with three books in one: the story of a wandering polar bear; a fictionalized account of Sir John Franklin's doomed 1845 expedition in search of the Northwest Passage; and, last but not least, a modern-day tearjerker. Sam Marshall, a two-year-old stricken with aplastic anemia, will die unless a bone-marrow donor can be found. The nearest match may well be his much older half-brother John, a marine archaeologist who's now lost somewhere in the Arctic while he looks for traces of the Franklin Expedition. Sam's mother, Jo Harper, the young and lovely widow of BBC-TV commentator and marine archaeologist Douglas Marshall, angered John's mother, Alicia, several years ago when Jo came to interview her about her famous ex-husband. And that was before Jo fell in love with Doug, who then died in a car crash that spared his grown son. The first Mrs. Marshall still hasn't gotten over her pique at her ex's lifelong obsession with the Franklin Expedition, and she's not about to help Jo find John. But there are others who will, among them Catherine Takkiruq, the half-Inuit beauty who loves John and is conveniently nearby in London. The race to find the young man begins, although no one knows for certain whether he's a match for Sam. Or whether Sam will even survive. See Sam waste away pathetically (and much more quickly than most victims of aplastic anemia would, the author notes coyly in an afterword). See the majestic polar bear stride across the frozen waste. See the stalwart 19th-century explorers perish one by one from cold and disease and starvation. See the author do her hardest to tie this triple-threat plot together in every possible way: thepolar bear is a mother too, with a sick cub. Hopelessly contrived.

Kirkus Reviews